-- July 9, 2012: The Interior Department reports that the Colorado economy reaped an economic benefit of $14.44 billion, including 74, 203 jobs, from Department of the Interior activities in 2011. The jobs included work in energy, mineral development, tourism and outdoor recreation, and more.

-- June 12, 2012: Rules to regulate hydraulic fracturing on public lands proposed by Salazar's Interior Department and its Bureau of Land Management would cost the energy industry from $1.499 billion to $1.615 billion annually, according to an analysis by the Western Energy Alliance, a Denver-based oil and gas industry trade group. Interior officials refute the claims.

-- Oct. 17, 2011: Both environmental groups and an oil and gas industry trade group decry a final decision by the Bureau of Land Management detailing acceptable uses of 1.3 million acres of public land in northwestern Colorado.

May 17, 2010: Salazar announces new, tighter rules for leasing public lands for oil and gas production -- rules that the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States said will create more red tape and uncertainty for investors, delaying drilling operations.

Oct. 21, 2009: Salazar launches a probe into changes to six oil-shale research leases on federal lands, mostly in Colorado, that were made in the final days of the George W. Bush administration.

Jan. 29, 2009: Salazar visits the Lakewood office of the scandal-rocked Minerals Management Service, vowing to clean up the agency. The MMS is later converted into two new agencies, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.